Tonight I went to one of my absolute favorite dining rooms in Dallas. The dark, warm, and romantic atmosphere of Daniele Osteria’s basement-level location was as welcoming as ever. You see, this little jewel of a restaurant is located under the Chase bank on Oak Lawn. That’s right - it’s basement level. Further on that point, the Dallas Observer called Daniele Osteria “The Best Place to Sit on a Patio and Not Be Seen” for their annual Best Of Dallas review. If you’re lucky, you may even be there on a night when there’s a live violinist in the dining room. In short, the atmosphere is wonderful which, incidentally, makes this a great place to take a date!

The next best thing about Daniele Osteria is the man himself, Daniele Puleo. Propitious, jocund, and sartorial to the extreme, Daniele will make you feel like his #1 guest (provided he’s working the dining room and not laboring hard in la cucina). How’s this for an anecdote: When leaving after a previous visit we bumped into Daniele himself tending to some tomato vines he has growing in big wooden planters out on the patio. A true Italian, this guy!

The specific subset of Italian cuisine is Sicilian. There is a fantastic selection of pasta combined with various sauces and other tasty ingredients such as mussels, mushrooms, and panchetta (yum!). In addition to the pasta dishes there are the Secondi (that’s 2nd course, or entrees, to you) which offers dishes like Orange Rougy Alla Messinese and Vitello Alla Siciliana (which I’ve had on a previous visit and it was delicious). Tonight I had the Filetto Al Gorgonzola, a beautiful (and perfectly prepared medium-rare) filet mignon with a gorgonzola sauce and some grilled veggies with potatoes. At $29 for such a delectable delight, I almost felt like I was robbing the place. Oh, and twice now I’ve started my evening with the Caprino Fritto. If eating fried goat cheese on a salad is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

However, despite all of this fantastic food, if you go to Daniele Osteria only once, you absolutely, positively, must have the Gnocchi al Gorgonzola. I’m not joking - if I hear you’ve dined from the custom ceramic dishes bearing Daniele’s name and you didn’t eat the gnocchi, I will hunt you down and smack you silly with a bologna sausage. Until proven otherwise, I will stand by the statement that this is the best gnocchi you can get in Dallas, and probably even all of Texas.

The wine list is impressive as well. There are some American wines on the list but honestly, I don’t look at those. In an earlier visit, Daniele himself pointed us to a red made from the sangiovese grape and I’ve been hooked on it ever since. This evening we had the Capezzana “Conti Contini”. It’s strong and fruity with just a little bit of spice and a nice long finish. Wines from this grape are commonly blends, but this particular wine was 100% sangiovese. For you high rollers out there, some older vintages of various wines are available for well into triple-digit prices.

A few notes in closing. First is parking. With a basement location, I can remember not knowing where to park the first time I went. The easiest place is to turn onto Hall street and use the garage behind the Chase building. You will see signs for the restaurant and there is a door straight in from the first level of the parking garage. Second, for Friday’s and weekends, reservations are recommended. Third - what’s an Osteria? I’m not 100% sure, but Google tells me this: “A tavern or humble restaurant where wine is served as the main attraction and tasty food is prepared to wash it down.” Good enough for me! And, finally, Daniele Osteria was recently Zagat rated.

As myself and my buds dragged our reluctant trigenarian friend around Uptown for his birthday dinner, I really didn’t know where we’d end up. You can walk for 10 mintues and see twice as many appealing places to dine. Eventually, we ended up at Arcodoro & Pomodoro, a sardinian-italian restaurant which, five minutes prior, I had never heard of. And might I note: moderately difficult to say out loud without deliberate enunciation. Or maybe it’s just difficult to hear. I haven’t once yet mentioned the name to someone who didn’t ask me to repeat myself. Moving on.

After reading on their website a bit, I get the impression that Arcodoro and Pomodoro used to be two separate restaurants that, in a very corporation-like-manner, merged to bring their collective culinary capacity to the dining public of Dallas. Fantastico!

The interior is very elegant. There’s a centrally located bar and multiple dining rooms, including a quaint little two-person table at the top of the stairwell, which has a bird’s-eye view of half the restaurant. Sort of like a little balconette. Also visible from behind glass doors was a large portion (or the entirety?) of their wine collection. A very pleasant place to be.

Starting at the bar, the first thing that was clear was that the bartender was very concerned with service. Not only was he very attentive, but when we ordered appetizers to hold us over during our 30-or-so minute wait, we received place-settings, folded napkins - the whole treatment. Our selections included some wonderful calamari, mushrooms with buffalo mozzarella, and some absolutely fantastic foccacia served with the traditional olive oil and balsamic dipping combo.

After being seated by the lovely hostess, who not only pulled out our chairs but also lap-placed our napkins, our waiter popped by to take drink orders and announce the specials. In addition to what I recall was four specials for the day, their menu was chock full of spectacular-looking dishes. I was quite hungry that night and ended up ordering the stinco (that’s leg of lamb to you), which was served with a surprisingly delicious risotto “cake.” The portion was huge - I don’t know for sure but it had to have been a good 16-20oz of baby sheep, which was oh-so-tasty. Oh, and I must mention, my friend who was celebrating his birthday with much chagrin, went all A-list on us and ordered off the menu - a wonderful trio of buffalo skewers, which looked almost as fabulous as they tasted. What a prima donna.

I skipped dessert that night, instead opting for a nice cappuccino which was delicious, and a perfect cap to such a satisfying meal. I don’t honestly recall what my friends ordered for dessert, but I do know that nobody went home with doggy bags, and all the plates on the table were clean when we left. This is definitely a place I look forward to trying again.